A need exists for optimizing and provisioning the allocation of bandwidth. This is to assure better handling of the competitive needs between networks and the concept of Quality of Service (“QoS”), including determining the priority of available bandwidth in a given network. The prior art addresses priority of transmission paths for data in an attempt to alleviate bottlenecks within a given network. Caching technologies, as an example, seek to push higher demand data closer to the access points for which the data is demanded, so-called “edge traffic.” A related approach, Quality of Service (“QoS”), attempts to make decisions about bandwidth accessibility based on a user's ability to access material within some predetermined time frame. For instance, if X number of users are able to access Y amount of bandwidth over some fixed period of time T, bandwidth can be estimated as a function of satisfying users X, or some percentage of X, for each increment of Y divided by T.
Users, however, may seek data objects (note that the terms “data object”, “data”, “discrete analog waveform”, or “data signal”—may be used interchangeably in this application) which by their very structure or format may occupy large amounts of bandwidth, thereby creating bandwidth demand that has little or no relationship to how the data is valued by third parties, including owners of the rights related to the objects. An example is the higher bandwidth demand and creation of network latency when streaming an audio or video signal, where, in addition, the data signal itself may be copyrighted. It is reasonable to assume that a copyrighted work does indeed have more value than one that is not copyrighted.
If a network can be used to handle any number of data files which can be aesthetic or not (for instance, functional data, such as algorithms, which itself manipulates data, would be considered to be non-aesthetic), and the value of the potential data may not be known in advance of provisioning for understanding how to handle bandwidth, this disclosure is designed to address some of the key factors in enabling a market for handling bandwidth and related transactions for data, which is made up of bandwidth in terms of how the data is rendered, manipulated, distributed and “potentially” priced given delivery and derivatives pricing to assist in the aggregate with delivery (particularly, commercial, so as to maximize the value of a network at any given point in time) of said objects. Another example is peer-to-peer network technologies that may tie-up bandwidth based on extensive database functions to bring two or more parties together seeking some data object without regard to the object's price or the underlying cost of maintaining peer-to-peer links to enable transfers of files between users. Additionally, the data object being demanded may not be readily determined to have ownership, authentication or responsibility necessary for successful commerce. This includes virtual private networks (“VPN”) or demands made for security by senders, receivers, or combinations of both. Such clearinghouse features have been proposed by digital rights management (“DRM”) providers but they lack the efficiencies and consumer demand which are required to handle data objects in a manner consistent with historical sales of a variety of data objects offered in physical formats. Systems such as Napster.TM., have been estimated to command as much as 4% of overall Internet bandwidth and yet no financial transactions exist to pay for either this extensive use of network bandwidth or any affiliated ownership and usage rights of the data being exchanged nor the historical value of said objects in other mediums such as physical objects containing the data (for example, copyrighted music files).
TCP, or Transmission Control Protocol, is currently used to break data into packets for transmission, which are received and reconstructed, sequentially at the receiver's end of the transmission. Technologies exist to assist with error correction when packets are dropped or lost during transmission. IP, or Internet Protocol, is designed to provide each networked “device” with an IP address. Packets sent under TCP and labeled with IP addresses enable data to be broken into packets and sent between machines that share TCP/IP coding schemes. In IP version 4 (“IPv4”), the current Internet Protocol, there are option fields that can be exploited at any place in the transmission chain for writing/embedding and detecting/recovering digital watermarks, a feature of embodiments in the present invention, for provisioning and pricing schemes, bandwidth prioritization, management systems, dispute resolution and clearinghouse functions. IPv4 allows up to 40 bytes of options; the size of IPv6 extension headers will only be constrained by the size of the IPv6 packet. Because of the sequential nature of TCP/IP a variety of optimizations have been suggested in the art. These include better ways of handling packets that may not have arrived at the intended address, or may have been lost during the transmission for any number of reasons (timing, error, overcapacity, rerouting, etc.).
One means for optimizing network speed is based on application of Reed-Solomon error correction coding. Because TCP/IP packets represent predetermined packets of data, that is, have a specific size without regard to the data object (e.g., its characteristics, perceptible or otherwise) being rendered, coarser estimates of the data objects' aesthetics or characteristics enable mathematical values to be assigned to a larger portion or subset of the data object itself. A simple linear equation can be used to define the independently derived values representing the data object. These mathematical values represent groupings of packets that are not sequentially ordered but fitted to the characteristics of the data object being broken down for transmission. These values can be handled by the systems or devices of the sender and receiver of the data to speed transmission or routing of the data. Using error correction coding, chunks are not sequential, as with TCP, but are generated with variations on Reed-Solomon code so that receivers of the data get chunks of the transmission that can be reconstructed non-sequentially but efficiently so long as the assigned values for the data are received. The chunks may also overlap the packets that would typically represent the object. In some applications, those signal features of the data which are deemed relatively, perceptibly important are reconstructed first on the receiving end of the transmission. This approach has the effect of speeding the routing of data over a network, such as the Internet.
IPv6 includes proposals for additional optimizations. In contrast with current IPv4 systems which are optimized to handled end-to-end transmission of data, without regard for the content of the data itself, attention has turned to enabling traffic prioritization, low level authentication with encryption, and better handling of audio and video streams. The present invention seeks to enable better granularity in handling data packets with a labeling scheme that can be handled by network infrastructures. Also essential is the authentication protocol to prevent labeling fraud. Specifically, the present invention offers a means for utilizing watermarks, in a manner that differs from traditional notions of digital watermarking (i.e., as information hiding in discrete objects), to prioritize data traffic and also to define the data being transmitted in terms consistent with any rights or ownership over the content being represented by the data. Provisions for clearinghouse facilities and certification of traffic are also contemplated by this document. Secondary or derivative markets for assisting in enabling efficiencies for the pricing of the bandwidth utilized are also, by extension, contemplated.